I was going to sign up with Sonics. But it turns out the $40/month + taxes and fees is fake.Fake because, it's really $53/month with taxes and fees. Because of the modem and ATA rental charges which are required.Sonics gives you no option to buy the equipment (or use your own).

Apparently their support is great. But I HATE HATE HATE bait and switch with unbridled passion.

While I understand their need to regulate the equipment they use, they should at least allow us to purchase it (instead of renting) to make the $40/month + taxes and fees number real. Or just say $53 + taxes and fees and be done with it.

1. When people sign up Sonic provides a $10 discount for the first year so it still is +Taxes and Fees2. Sonic (if you don't use Sonic over ATT but their own Fiber) is NOT requiring anybody to use their modem. It is 100% optional and you can connect your own router straight to the ONT.

Sonic requires you to hold one of their modems, even if you don't use it, during the period of any promo offer. After that they charge you $6.50/month FOREVER. There is no straightforward way to RMA the modem after the promo period. The Sonic webpages only tell you how to RMA the modem after service cancellation. I am currently trying to RMA my unused, unopened modem.

They charge $11 to return the modem, and they send you a "scary" letter telling you that they will bill you up the wazoo if you need home service after you return the modem. Of course, AT&T will happily fix any problem you have with your wires for free because they love the opportunity to offer you competing service. They told me about a fiber deal, 5 times faster than my Sonic Fusion, with a fixed IP and reverse DNS, for the same price as the Fusion.Yeah Sonic, this is the kind of grief you bring on yourselves when you act like you are the only game in town.

dpepperdine wrote:I was going to sign up with Sonics. But it turns out the $40/month + taxes and fees is fake.Fake because, it's really $53/month with taxes and fees. Because of the modem and ATA rental charges which are required.Sonics gives you no option to buy the equipment (or use your own).

Apparently their support is great. But I HATE HATE HATE bait and switch with unbridled passion.

While I understand their need to regulate the equipment they use, they should at least allow us to purchase it (instead of renting) to make the $40/month + taxes and fees number real. Or just say $53 + taxes and fees and be done with it.

Because I can't really get the $40/month rate. It's just not real.

What other ISP quotes the true monthly cost for their service? Did you find out before you signed up or after you committed? If you found out before then Sonic was forthcoming and disclosed the cost. They also have a table providing taxes/fees per city, which I don't think no other ISP operating in California does.

So what other ISP did you end up sign up with? Do they adhere to this non-existent principle you trolled us with?

Sonic Guest wrote:Do they adhere to this non-existent principle you trolled us with?

Since when is "Companies should be upfront about the actual cost a consumer will pay" a non-existent principle?

And it's really a little depressing to see all the Sonic fans saying "everyone else is just as bad" instead of saying "I think Sonic really has the potential to be a different kind of company and I hope they switch to a more honest advertising approach."

As bad as the competition may be, Sonic has a way to go to get to truly honest and transparent advertising. It is absolutely impossible for anyone to get Sonic service for $40 (even if we leave out the taxes & fees part). As pokute pointed out, Sonic requires you to rent the modem (whether you want it or not) in order to get the $10 off teaser rate. When I was still getting the "discount" I was paying $9.50 a month for a modem that just sat in a box. So the absolute minimum I could have paid was $49.50/month. So telling people that they can get service for $40 (+ taxes and fees) is dishonest.

Now let's look at the whole "taxes and fees" thing. Those taxes and fees are all based on the phone service that Sonic forces you to bundle with your internet service. If they gave an option of only internet, there would be no taxes and fees. There are plenty of threads--going back years--complaining about being forced to bundle phone service, but for the sake of not getting too far off topic let's just assume that Sonic does so for entirely benevolent reasons and that the government imposed taxes and fees are just the cost of being an internet customer. That still leaves the $6.50 "Voice Federal Subscriber Line Charge Fee". That is not a tax or fee that goes to any government agency or fund. That is a fee that is charged by the phone service provider (e.g. Sonic) that goes straight into the provider's pocket. Federal regulations put a cap of $6.50 on how much the service provider can charge, but there is no requirement to charge it at all. At best it is a cost of providing service that masquerades as a fee. At worst, it is a sneaky, underhanded way that telecom companies use to hide the true cost to consumers.

The Federal Subscriber Line Charge exists because the big telecoms spent millions of dollars lobbying and supporting candidates who would give them friendly regulations rather than supporting consumer-friendly regulation. This is nothing new, but if Sonic is going to claim to be something new, then they should stop taking advantage of this anti-consumer regulation and just put that $6.50 into their price of service instead of hiding it in the "fees" fine print.

You bet I'm a Sonic fan. They happen to have values that are in line with mine so far.

Go ahead and start an ISP. What will you do when your competition advertises their rates by quoting only what the service costs and you have the bulk of the people who only look at that price? Do you take the high road or do what your competitors do?

If you subscribe to Sonic fiber, you can return the modem and use your own. Only if you use resold AT&T services must you subscribe to their modem. I'm unsure about the rationale behind requiring phone service but it is probably tied to being an CLEC.